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Two new Royal Caribbean vessels that when completed will share the title of World's Largest Cruise Ship will sail from Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades year-round under an agreement announced on Dec. 4th.

The first of the two Genesis class cruise ships, which will carry up to 6,400 passengers and 2,000 crew, is scheduled to make its debut in mid-2009 with the second scheduled to join it a year later.

The ships will dwarf the vessels that currently share the World's Largest Cruise Ship title, Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas, which carry 4,300 passengers.

Freedom and Liberty both are currently based year-round at the Port of Miami, and the competition between Miami and Fort Lauderdale to be home of the new Genesis class cruise ships has been intense.

By winning the battle, Port Everglades now appears poised to dethrone Miami as the world's largest cruise ship homeport.

The Broward County Commission, which oversees operation of the port, unanimously approved an agreement under which one of the cruise ship terminals at Port Everglades will be renovated at a cost of $37.4 million to handle the new ships.

Royal Caribbean's board of directors is expected for formally ratify the pact at a meeting on Dec. 18.